A single volume sent forth from the privacy of a retired student, by its
silent influence may mark an epoch in the history of the human mind
among a people.
Such a volume was "The Discoverie of Witchcraft, by Reginald Scot," a
singular work which may justly claim the honour in this country of
opening that glorious career which is dear to humanity and fatal to
imposture.
Witchcraft and magic, and some similar subjects, through a countless
succession of ages, consigned the human intellect to darkness and to
chains. In this country these conspiracies against mankind were made
venerable by our laws and consecrated by erring piety. They were long
the artifices of malignant factions, who found it mutually convenient to
destroy each other by the condemnation of crimes which could never be
either proved or disproved. The sorcerers and witches under the Church
of Rome were usually the heretics; and our Henry the Eighth, who was a
Protestant pope, transferred the grasp of power to the civil law, and an
Act of Parliament of the Reformation made witchcraft felony. Dr.
Bulleyn, a celebrated physician and a reformer, who lived through the
gloomy reign of Philip and Mary, bitterly laments "that while so many
blessed men are burned, witches should walk at large." When the Act fell
into disuse, Elizabeth was reminded, by petitions from the laity and by
preaching from the clergy, that "witches and sorcerers were wonderfully
increasing, and that her Majesty's subjects pined away until death."
Witchcraft was again confirmed to be felony.
The learned and others were fostering the traditions of the people about
spirits, the incubus, and the succubus, the assemblies of witches, and
the sabbaths of Satan. Some constructed their theories to explain the
inexplicable; and too many, by torture, extorted their presumed facts
and delusive confessions. The sage doated--the legal functionaries were
only sanguinary executioners; and the merciful, with the kindest
intentions, were practising every sort of cruelty, by what was termed
trials to save the accused. The history of these dismal follies belongs
even to a late period of the civilization of Christian Europe! An
enlightened physician of Germany had raised his voice in defence of the
victims who were suffering under the imputation of Sorcery;[1] not
denying the Satanic potency, he maintained that the devil was very well
able to execute his own malignant purposes without the aid of such
miserable agents. It required a protracted century ere Balthaser
Bekker's "World Bewitched" could deprive Satan himself of his
personality, indeed of his very existence. But it was a subject to be
tenderly touched; superstition was a sacred thing, and too often riveted
with theology; and though the learned Wierus had thus guarded his
system, to a distant day he encountered the polemical divines. One of
his fiercest assailants was a layman, the learned Bodin, he who has
composed so admirable a treatise on Government, now deeply plunged into
the "Demonomanie des Sorciers." The volume of Wierus, he tells us, "made
his hair stand on end." "Shall we," he cries, "credit a little
physician" before all the philosophers of the world, and the laws of God
which condemn sorcerers?
While Wierus and Bodin had been thus employed, an Englishman, Reginald
Scot, in the serene retreat of a studious life, was silently labouring
on the development of this great moral conquest over the prejudices of
Europe. Reginald Scot, who passed his life in the occupation of his
studies, seems to have concentrated them on this great subject, for he
has left no other work, except an esteemed tract on the cultivation of
the hop--the vine of his Kentish county. Although he took no degree at
college, his erudition was not the less extensive, as appears by his
critical knowledge of the Hebrew and Greek. But it was chiefly by his
miscellaneous reading, where nothing seems to have escaped his
insatiable curiosity on the extraordinary subjects which he ventured to
scrutinise with such minute attention, that he was enabled to complete
one of the most curious investigations of the age. Anthony Wood, in his
peculiar style, tells us that "Scot gave himself up solely to _solid
reading_, and to the perusal of _obscure authors_ that had by the
generality of the learned been neglected." This is a curious description
of the early state of our vernacular literature, and of those students
who, watchful over the spirit of the times, sought a familiar
acquaintance with the opinions of their contemporaries. All writers were
condemned as "obscure" who stood out of the pale of classical antiquity;
and plain Anthony, who rarely dipped into the writings of Greece and
Rome, but was an incessant lover of the miscellaneous writers of modern
date, distinguishes his favourites as "solid reading." In the days of
Reginald Scot our scholars never ventured to quote other authority than
some ancient; but the poets from Homer to Ovid, the historians from
Tacitus to Valerius Maximus, and the essayists from Plutarch to Aulus
Gellius, could not always supply arguments and knowledge for an age and
on topics which had nothing in common with their own.
With more elevated views than Wierus, Scot denied the power of
sorcerers, because it attributed to them an omnipotence which can only
be the attribute of divine power. Our philosopher could publish only
half the truth. "My question is not, as many fondly suppose, whether
there be witches or not, but whether they can do such miraculous works
as are imputed unto them." He thus adroitly eludes an argument which the
public mind was not yet capable of comprehending. The "Discoverer" had
to encounter a fierce host in shaking the predominant creed. The
passions of mankind were enlisted against the zealous antagonist of an
ancient European prejudice; the vital interests of priestly exorcists
were at stake. To doubt of a supernatural agency seemed to some to be
casting a suspicion over miracles and mysteries. The most ticklish point
was the difficulty of explaining Scriptural phrases, which Reginald Scot
denied related to witches, in the ordinary sense attached to these
miserable women; the Hebrew term merely designating a female who
practised the arts of "a poisoner," or "a cozener or cheat." The whole
scene of the witch of Endor seems to have racked the "Discoverer's"
invention through several chapters, to unveil the preparatory management
of such incantations, by the ventriloquising Pythonissa, and her
confederate, some lusty priest. All these Scot presumes to trace in the
obscure and interrupted narrative of the Israelitish Macbeth, who, in
his despair, hastened by night to listen to his approaching fate, which
hardly required the gift of prophecy to predict.
Our "Discoverer" prepared his readers for a revolution in their
opinions. It appears that in his day, notwithstanding some fairies still
lurking in the bye-corners of our poets, the whole fairy creed had in
fact passed away. He appeals to this native mythology, now utterly
exploded, as an evidence of popular infatuation; and our philosopher
observes that he cannot hope that the partial reader should look with
impartial eyes on this book; it were labour lost to ask for this, for,
he adds, "I should no more prevail therein than if _a hundred years
since I should have entreated your predecessors_ to believe that Robin
Goodfellow, that great but antient bull-beggar, had been but a cousening
merchant, and no devil indeed." This was a philosophical parallelism;
and the corollary pinched the present generation concerning their
witches, they who were now holding their fathers dotards for their
belief in fairies.
The volume abounds with many strange incidents, which its singular
subject involved. The solitary witch of the homestead was not the poetic
witch uttering her incantations at her mystic cauldron. Her homely feats
are familiar, but the revelations of the impostures are not. "The devils
and spirits," the powers of the kingdom of darkness, are more fantastic.
These raw materials have been woven in the rich looms of Shakspeare and
Goethe. Our author included in his volume a complete treatise of
legerdemain, or the conjuring art. To convince the people that many acts
may appear miraculous without the intervention of a miracle, he
ingeniously initiated himself into the deceptious practices of the
juggler; but he dreaded lest the spectators of his dexterity should
depose against his own witchcraft, and "the Familiar," his confederate.
Our seer, to save himself from fire or water, has not only minutely
explained these "deceitful arts," but cautiously accompanied them by
woodcuts of the magical instruments used on these occasions. At the
time, these were surprising revelations. The sagacity of our author
anticipated the fate of his work. It appears to have shaken the
credulity of a very few reflecting magistrates; yet such scholars as Sir
Thomas Smith, the great political writer, when he retired from public
life, as a justice of peace, was active in punishing witches. But the
book was denounced by the divines.
When Reginald Scot's work was translated into Dutch, we learn from an
arch-enemy of philosophy, the intolerant Calvinistical polemic, Voetius,
that "this book was an inexhaustible source, whence not a few learned
and unlearned persons in the Netherlands have begun to doubt, and grow
sceptics and libertines with regard to witchcraft. Our country is
infected with libertines and half libertines, and they have proceeded to
such a pitch of ignorance, that this set of new Sadducees laugh at all
the operations and apparitions of the devils as phantoms and fables of
old women, and timorous superstition." The work was more successful
abroad than at home; and, indeed, how often have the benefactors of
mankind experienced that the voice of foreigners is the voice of
posterity! They decide without prepossessions.
The FIRST edition of the "Discoverie of Witchcraft," 1584, is of extreme
rarity, the copies having been burned by the order of James, on his
accession to the English throne, in compliance with the act of
parliament of 1603, which ratified a belief in witchcraft throughout the
three kingdoms; but the author had not survived to see that day. This
awful prejudice broke out afresh under the fanatical government, and
gave rise to an infamous class of men who were called "witch-finders."
When a reward was publicly offered, there seemed to be no end in finding
witches. It was probably this great evil which reminded the people of
Scot, whose work was reprinted in 1651, but the public so eagerly
required another edition, that it was again republished in 1665. The
fact was, that justices, judges, and juries, had so little improved by
the _second_ edition, that many had kept with great care their
note-books of "Examinations of Witches," and were discovering "hellish
knots of them." It was only in the preceding year that Sir Matthew Hale
had left for execution two female victims, without even summing up the
evidence, solely resting on the fact that "there were witches," for
which assumption he appealed "to the Scriptures," and he added, to "the
wisdom of all nations!" What is not less remarkable in this trial, the
illustrious corrector of "vulgar errors," Sir Thomas Browne, in his
medical character examining the accused person, who was liable to
fainting fits, acknowledged that the fits were natural and common; but
the philosopher was so prepossessed that the woman was a witch, that he
pronounced against her, alleging this mystical explanation of "the
subtleties of the devil," who had taken this opportunity of her natural
fits to be "co-operating with her malice!" What a demonstration that
superstition holds its mastery even over the philosophic intellect!
The popular prejudice was confirmed by narratives of witchcraft, by
Joseph Glanvil, one of the early founders of the Royal Society; by the
visionary learning of the platonic Dr. More; and by the theological
dogmatism of Meric Casaubon. Dr. More was desirous that every parish
should keep a register of all authentic histories of apparitions and
witchcraft: and Glanvil was so staunch a believer, that he considered
that the strong unbelief in some persons was an evidence of what they
denied; for that so confident an opinion could not be held but by some
kind of witchcraft and fascination in the senses. All these, and such as
these, treat with extreme contempt and cover with obloquy "the Father of
the modern Witch-advocates," "the Gallant of the Old Hags!" This was our
Reginald Scot.
The most elaborate treatise on the subject was now sent forth by John
Webster; "The Displaying of Supposed Witchcraft," 1677, fo. He defends
Scot and Wierus against Glanvil and Casaubon. He was a clergyman, and
dares not agitate the question, _an sint_, whether there be witches or
not; but _quomodo sint_, in what manner they act, and what the things
are they do, or can perform. The state of the question is not simply the
being of witches, or _de existencia_, but only _de modo existendi_. The
dispute of their manner of existing necessarily supposes their
existence. He has, however, detected many singular impostures, and the
volume is full and curious.[2]
Glanvil and his "Sadducismus Triumphatus, or full evidence concerning
Witches," 1668, a book so popular that I have never met with a very fair
copy, introduced with plenary evidence a minute narrative of "the Demon
of Tedworth," whose invisible drum beat every night for above a year, in
the house of some reverend magistrate, who had evidently raised a spirit
which he could not lay, and whose Puck-like pranks wofully deranged the
whole unsuspicious family. This tale, confirmed by affidavits, but
shaken by demurrers, was long an article of faith, but finished by
furnishing the comedy of Addison's "Drummer." The controversy about
witches, including that of ghosts, which were equally the incessant but
volatile phantoms of their chase, now assumed a more serious aspect than
ever. The illustrious Boyle, who had observed the unguarded heat with
which it was pursued, vainly cautioned the parties, that even religion
might suffer by weak arguments drawn from uncertain statements. Boyle
had more reason to say this than one might suppose; for Dr. More, ever
too vehement and too fanciful, had exclaimed in his unhappy conviction,
"No bishop, no king! no spirit, no God!"[3]
Shadwell in his "Lancashire Witches," resolved to advance nothing
without authority, accompanies that comedy with ample notes, drawn from
the writings of witch-believers. His witches, therefore, are far beneath
those of Shakspeare, for they do nothing but what we are told witches
do; the whole system of witchery is here exhibited. In his remarkable
preface, Shadwell tells us, that if he had not represented them as
_real_ witches, "it would have been called atheistical by a prevailing
party."
The belief in witchcraft was maintained chiefly by that fatal error
which had connected the rejection of any supernatural agency in old
women with religious scepticism; and it was fostered by the statutes,
which with the lawyer admitted of no doubt. "We cannot doubt of the
existence of witchcraft, seeing that our law ordains it to be punished
by death," was the argument of Sir George Mackenzie, the great Scottish
advocate; nor is it less sad to see such minds as that of the great Dr.
Clarke, celebrated for his logical demonstrations, thus reasoning on
witchcraft, astrology, and fortune-telling; "All things of this sort,
whenever they have any reality in them, are evidently diabolical; and
when they have no reality, they are cheats and lying impostures."[4] The
great demonstrator thus confesses "the reality" of these chimeras!
Another not less celebrated divine, Dr. Bentley, infers that "no English
priest need affirm the existence of sorcery or witchcraft, since they
now have a public law which they neither enacted nor procured, declaring
these practices to be felony!"[5] Did the doctor know that churchmen
have had no influence in creating that belief, or in enacting this
statute?
The gravity of Blackstone seems strangely disturbed when as a lawyer he
was compelled to acknowledge its existence. "It is a crime of which one
knows not well what account to give." The commentator on the laws of
England found no other resource than to turn to Addison, whose gentle
sagacity could only discover that "_in general_, there has been such a
thing as witchcraft, though one cannot give credit to any _particular_
modern instance of it." Not one of these writers had yet ventured to
detect the hallucinations of self-credulity in the victims, and the
crimes of remorseless men in their persecutors. The name and the volume
of their own countryman had never reached them, who two centuries before
had elucidated these chimeras.
After the statute against witchcraft had been repealed in England, we
must not forget that an act of the Assembly of the Calvinistic Church of
Scotland confesses "as a great national sin, the act of the British
Parliament abolishing the burning and hanging of witches."
The name of Reginald Scot does not appear in the "Biographia
Britannica;" and it was only from a short notice by Bayle, that Dr.
Birch, in his translation of the General Dictionary, was induced to draw
up a life of our earliest philosopher. Such was the fate of this
"English gentleman," as Bayle has described him; and the philosophical
reader, in what is now before him, may detect the shifting shades of
truth, till it settles in its real and enduring colour; the philosopher
had demonstrated a truth which it required a century and a half for the
world to comprehend.
That such courageous and generous tempers as that of REGINALD SCOT
should fail themselves of being the spectators of that noble revolution
in public opinion which was the ripening of their own solitary studies,
is the mortifying tale of the benefactors of mankind.